WASHINGTON  President Barack Obama is converting the machinery of his re-election campaign into a tax-exempt nonprofit group to push his second-term legislative agenda, a Democratic official confirmed.

The new group, Organizing for Action, will be headed by Jim Messina, who served as Obama’s 2012 campaign manager.

The group, separate from the Democratic National Committee, will solicit donations from corporations and individuals to augment Obama’s legislative initiatives the next four years on such issues as reducing gun violence and immigration.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details before an official announcement later Friday. The formation of the group was reported earlier by the Los Angeles Times.

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This is a waste of time and money, just showboating and covering up the use of the money. If used to help other Democrats win election, then that is part of the game, but there is no way he is going to convince GOP members to change their thinking by using campaign money to seed wedge groups to lobby against them. If the items he wants like the Immigration bomb were popular you would not have to resort to stuff like this.He needs to get out of the campaign mode and get into the governance mode.